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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24879163">Day 174</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard'>Josh_the_Bard</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Year in Kirkwall [174]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 10:48:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>799</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24879163</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Year in Kirkwall [174]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Day 174</h2></a>
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    <p>Bodahn didn’t really know what to do with himself. Usually he used his free time to get some shopping done, or to spend some time working with Sandel, or just going over his collection of oddities and trinkets. Today, however, Hawke had insisted that he go out and find something ‘fun’ to do in the city. He had even been given extra pay that week so he could do something truly extravagant. Bodahn would not normally leave Sandel alone for that long but Hawke had even offered to mind the boy for the day.</p><p>The cellar was in a truly fowl state, yesterday had been the most unpleasant day working for Hawke, at least in terms of cleaning, but Bodahn had smelled much worse during the blight. Bodahn would have cleaned a thousand chamber pots gladly if he could forget the smell of rotting darkspawn corpses.</p><p>He decided to go to the dwarven quarter of High Town to see what was available. He passed a stall offering ‘fine dwarven crafts’ from Orzammar; he looked over the wares on display but didn’t see anything he would have called ‘fine’. </p><p>There was a smith who offered fitted armors and perfectly balanced weapons, neither of which Bodahn had any use for. </p><p>The third stall he passed offered beard trimming and styling. Bodahn had always styled his own hair and beard. It was a necessary skill when one was on the road constantly. He had watched some of the nobles and wealthy merchants of Orzammar getting professional beard styling back before he was exiled, it had always seemed too frivolous an expense for Bodahn, but that was what Hawke had wanted for him today.</p><p>He went up to the stall and started haggling with the woman there. She had an impressive set of blond braids and a close cropped beard of her own, an excellent advertisement for her skill. He put his best effort into haggling, as much for professional pride as to save Hawke’s money.</p><p>The woman led him into her tent where she had a very extravagant setup. Bodahn was instructed to change out of his shirt and into an apron, so as to stop his shirt from getting wet or being covered with hair she said. It was already a bit more intimate then he would have liked, but he had already paid so he went along with it.</p><p>The woman went over to a pot of incense and set it alight. The smell of warm earth and spice soon filled up the tent, bringing back memories of a time when Bodahn could walk the halls of his homeland freely. </p><p>He sat in a reclining chair over a basin of warm water while the woman unbranded his hair and beard, and then began washing it out with soapy water. Her fingers combed through his hair, fingers trailing softly over his scalp and face. It was an incredibly relaxing feeling ,especially with the warmth of the basin flowing over his head.</p><p>The woman took her time, slowly untangling every strand of hair Bodahn had, and massaging his scalp as she went. Then she produced a razor and carefully sliced off stay bits or hair, going so far as to sculpt the edges of his eyebrows, bringing the wild bushy mass to heel.</p><p>She next tooh handfuls of beard bristles and started to weave them in and out of each other. Bodahn was usually proud of the work he did on his own braids but, watching her progress in a mirror, he realized how base his skill had been. His hair was now a work of art, braids interlocking and twirling in complex patterns that were strangely reminiscent of the wall of memories.</p><p>Bodahn was sad when the woman finished her work. He felt more like falling asleep then getting up and continuing his day but the woman had other customers to see too so he dressed and thanked her before leaving.</p><p>He couldn’t think of anything else he really felt like doing that day, and fell into his old habit of shopping. He collected minor trinkets as well and anything he thought Hawke or Sandel might use. Almost every dwarf he spoke to complemented his beard and, though it might have been his imagination, he thought he was getting better deals as well. He had always known there was measurable value in keeping up appearances, but he had never taken it so far as to have been professionally styled before a day of haggling.</p><p>He figured the best thing to do was to try to work out at what point the hair-styling paid for himself. He decided he  would have to come back to run a further experiment, and almost managed to convince himself that he was motivated purely by profit.</p>
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